1. VLDB 2005 Technical Program Report Christian S. Jensen Technical Program Chair with Klemens Böhm, Klaus R. Dittrich, Laura Haas, Martin Kersten, Masaru Kitsuregawa, Paul Larson, Beng Chin Ooi, Tore Risch, Betty Salzberg, and Øystein Torbjørnsen

2. highlights

3. Technical Program Highlights Keynote: Why Search Engines are Used Increasingly to Offload Queries from Databases Panel: Database Publication Practices Tutorials: approximate joins, contextual insight in search, synopsis construction, personalized-system construction, semantic overlay networks, XML full-text search Industrial sessions (7) 30 demos – overview sessions as well as up-close sessions! Research sessions (28, 85 papers)

4. Technical Program Highlights 10 Year Best Paper Session: W3QS: A Query System for the World-Wide Web A total of 11 VLDB affiliated workshops The largest number ever!

5. statistics

6. Acceptance Rates by Track CoreDBIISIA&ETotalDemos Submit3221954656368 Accept53321810330 Acceptance Rate 16.5%16.4%39%18.3%43.8%

7. 351365 468457504563 Submissions By Year and Track

8. Acceptances By Year and Track (20.2%) (14.7%) (36.6%) (19.6%) (16.6%) (19.2%) (18.3%) (19.4%) (18.2%) (14.0%) (43.2%) (18.3%) 85 84 98103 (18.3%) (16.5%) (16.4%) (39.1%)

9. comments

10. The Process This year, a program committee for demo papers was introduced. All submissions were reviewed by (at least) three reviewers. All deadlines were met – notification was even given early!

11. The Process A PC chair meeting was held in Seattle. Prior to this, the PC members had discussed the papers they had reviewed. The final selection of papers to accept was made at the PC chair meeting. Rigorous conflict of interest mechanisms were enforced. No quota on the number of papers that could be accepted was enforced. Decoupling of the number of presentation slots and acceptance. In the future, the lengths of presentation slots may vary. We need kinder reviewing to obtain higher acceptance rates.

12. Observations Workshops VLDB 1995 had one. This year, we have the largest workshop program ever. Should some workshops occur in parallel with the conference? Submission procedure About 30% of the abstract submissions never materialize. Of little value to have two deadlines? Proceedings They are beautiful, inside and out. They could be the last hardcopy VLDB proceedings. A very limited edition – very few exist. They are true collector’s items. Who gets to the registration desk first? PS. Bring money.

13. Acknowledgments The technical program officers 170 PC members ~440 external referees The local organizers 2,000+ authors You, the conference participants! thank you!

14. enjoy the conference